Add-ons boost county pay by millions

San Diego County Sheriff's deputies confer at the scene where a man was shot in the face on Mapleview Street in Lakeside last month. The county paid its employees $2.1 million in uniform allowances last year, which count toward pension calculations.

San Diego County Sheriff's deputies confer at the scene where a man was shot in the face on Mapleview Street in Lakeside last month. The county paid its employees $2.1 million in uniform allowances last year, which count toward pension calculations.

San Diego County paid its employees more than $100 million in the past four years for special benefits such as car and uniform allowances — and most of the add-ons count toward their retirement.

It’s a practice that goes on across California and is increasingly controversial as taxpayers face bills for underfunded public employee retirement costs.

In 2007 and 2008, add-on pay was as much as $43 million a year, Investigative Newsource found in a review of payroll data. That has dropped to $13 million a year in the past two years with the elimination of a performance bonus program in light of the economy.

After the bonus program, the next most costly add-ons were bilingual pay at $3.3 million per year and uniform allowance at $2.1 million.

Forty-four employees, including the county supervisors and top administrators, are eligible to receive car allowances ranging from $7,200 to $12,000 a year. They cost the county about $360,000 annually from 2007 through 2010.

Advocates consider supplemental pay to be income that is rightfully counted toward pension calculations; critics see it as a way to gouge taxpayers.

“Higher pay for special skill sets, such as helicopter pilots, is part of doing business,” said Supervisor Pam Slater-Price. “Premiums are negotiated with labor. For the most part, they were likely negotiated in lieu of other benefits.”

Lani Lutar, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, disagreed.

“We don’t think any specialty pay should be part of a pension calculation,” Lutar said. “This has a significant long-term impact on taxpayers. If you look at the salaries that are paid out, they already allow for extremely generous pensions.”

County officials said they have never studied the impact of special pay on long-term pension costs because it’s a relatively small amount in relation to the county’s payroll of just under $1 billion.

Payments for overtime and accrued sick and vacation time do not count toward retirement.

Special pay items that boost salaries range from helicopter duty to weekend shifts and prisoner transportation. There’s a pay bump for being bilingual or having certifications or advanced degrees.

“Our case loads are high,” said Ernie Susi, president of the San Diego County Probation Officers’ Association, who said his members receive a number of deserved add-ons. “It’s a lot of stress.”

Uniform allowances don’t even cover the costs of uniforms, he said, and institutional pay covers the hazards of working in a detention facility — such as fecal matter thrown on officers.

“It’s pretty intense all the time,” he said.

During 2007 and 2008, performance bonuses constituted the largest portion of special pay.

Officials said the bonus program was a win-win for the county and employees. The county avoided some across-the-board permanent pay increases, while employees received up to 4 percent in bonus pay if they helped their departments come in 6 percent under budget. The program was shelved in 2009 because of budget constraints, the officials said.

More than 70 of the 80-plus categories of special pay are included in pension calculations.

For most county employees, retirement calculations are based on years and type of service and rate of pay in the highest 26 consecutive pay checks, which are issued every two weeks. For others, it’s based on an average of their highest three consecutive years of compensation.

Special pay can make a difference.

For an employee with 25 years of service and a high base salary of $65,000 at retirement, for example, $2,500 in special pay would boost the annual pension pay by about 4 percent, or $1,872 per year.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob said county officials are obligated to put special pay into pension calculations because of a 1997 California Supreme Court ruling known as the Ventura decision. The court concluded a number of special payments had been improperly excluded from pension calculations, resulting in retroactive increases for the plaintiffs, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies.

“I question many of the premiums and they should be reevaluated,” Jacob said. “The problem is, many were negotiated with our labor unions before my time on the board and it’s extremely difficult to un-ring the bell.”

Jacob, first elected in 1992, noted that the county needs to offer some types of special pay to attract workers.

“I know how hard it is for the county to recruit quality people willing to put on a hazmat suit, or work as jailhouse nurses or work a graveyard shift in a tough area. I know how hard it is to find crackerjack executives who are creative and committed to public service. We can’t compete with the corporate world for that caliber of talent” without premiums, she said.

Eraina Ortega, a legislative representative with the California State Association of Counties, a group that lobbies for county government interests, said her organization has advocated for the overturning of the Ventura decision because the association favors placing the decision-making power with counties. She said transparency is essential.

“As long as the public can see what benefits are being provided,” she said, “the public has a right to look into it and say, ‘Is this the appropriate compensation for our public officials?’ ”

Don Turko, the county’s Human Resources director, said the county continues to analyze what special pay should be on the table during the next set of contract talks with employee unions.

“To the extent we can minimize costs subject to Ventura, we’ll pursue those,” he said.

Investigative Newsource is a nonprofit organization specializing in data-driven reporting, based at San Diego State University’s School of Journalism & Media Studies.